Yet, it can be easy to fall into high self-orientation mode where “your attention is focused on yourself and others become acutely aware of it and infer that you do not care about them. Rightly or wrongly, they then decide you are untrustworthy.”

As (one version) of the old saying goes, “be interested, not interesting.”

I am excited to present this week at the Daily Iowan’s 150th anniversary celebration. As a University of Iowa undergrad, the DI was my first training ground in how to be a reporter and a newsroom manager. It remains an incredible experience for students.

I’ll be speaking about change management, focusing on media organizations. It’s been a year since I left my job as a digital director at a TV station to return to school and head down a new career path in change management. I’ve had plenty of “aha” moments from incredible mentors connected with Northwestern University’s MSLOC program about why organizational change can be so difficult and how to help make it a smoother process.

Plenty of news organizations continue to scramble just to get their product out, find new revenue streams and navigate ever-changing consumer behavior. It’s a tough business and the past decade has been a roller-coaster ride. I also remain deeply concerned that news companies still aren’t paying enough attention to building and growing internal change capability. There’s plenty of “we need to change” talk, but the “how” of the change — the boots-on-the-ground, step-by-step implementation that gets broad buy-in — loses steam. Many are failing to continually train new leaders or set up systems to create, share and scale knowledge in engaging ways. Some don’t have the know-how to create successful and sustainable teams, HR is buried in logistics paperwork, the emotional impact of historic industry disruption on employees is ignored and so on.

If you work for a media organization, here are a few tactics to consider when navigating change:

Try to stay in the problem. Picture it: You’re in a meeting and a problem is brought to everyone’s attention. It’s the first time most participants in the room have heard of this problem. What does everyone do? They start suggesting solutions. Not so fast. While that behavior is rewarded around deadline-driven news coverage, it may not work best with internal, organizational strategy. Ask the room: Have we really identified that this is the problem? How do we know? Have we tested these assumptions?

Ask questions. Then ask more questions and then ask more questions. How many times do we pretend to listen to others, but are actually simultaneously formulating a response in our minds? This Harvard Business Review article has a different tactic. There is power in asking follow-up questions, which can make a participant feel respected and involved in a change process. Questions can be as much about building rapport and gaining support for an initiative as they are about getting answers. Here’s a challenge: Could you go an entire work day mostly asking questions? You do work in the communications business, after all. Take a page from journalism and avoid “yes” or “no” questions, capitalize on silence and allow the other person to expand on their comments and take care not to interrupt.

Know yourself at work. Do you know your work style? How do you react during times of stress? Can you read a room and adjust your style accordingly? Taking assessments can provide a better sense of how to be more effective in the workplace. Two of my favorites are the CliftonStrengths assessment and the Hogan assessments. Here’s more information on assessments.

Build narrative intelligence. Organizational storytelling is the focus of my Master’s thesis and I am convinced that company leaders (especially) should continue to build skills in this area. Being able to tell the right story at the right time to the right audience to spark action will become even more critical to drive change. Storytelling can be a powerful way to steer through ambiguity.

And, please incorporate story arc, current state and future state into your presentations. This TED Talk from Nancy Duarte should be required watching for anyone creating a PowerPoint:

The world of work has changed and leaders need to become champions of innovation and create a work environment that fosters creativity, ideation and experimentation. How can that happen? It’s not easy.

Stephanie Waite, Amy Buck and Andee Harris joined me to discuss their tips and tactics. I especially loved their takes on how leaders can use the power of questions and reading the room/body language to adjust their messages.

Will Busch III, Associate Client Partner at Korn Ferry Hay Group in Chicago, joined me on the DisruptHR Chicago podcast to explain how data can help HR show its value in business, his advice for newbies and more. It’s good stuff and worth a listen.

The May podcast is here! Ellen Steele Kapoor reflects on her 2016 DisruptHR Chicago talk on the topic of inclusion and diversity. Implementing diversity and inclusion in an organization can be difficult. Make people included can be even more difficult.

“A lot of people have been feeling excluded,” she said. “A lot of people in many parts of society, in many parts of the country, in ages, a lot of people have been feeling like they’re not part of something bigger. When you don’t feel like you’re part of something bigger, the one thing that connects people pretty quickly is fear.”

Note: I’m Working Out Loud to document my learning journey around developing a digital learning course for the Master’s in Learning & Organizational Change program at Northwestern University.

The first iteration of the digital portfolio course is built in the Canvas learning management system. This design is based on research, project KPIs, answers to key initial questions and a first round of stakeholder interviews.

We met with a group of MSLOC instructors, one-on-one, to collect initial feedback. Instances of overlapping feedback was integrated into the course design. This week, we are meeting with seven MSLOC students, also one-on-one, to document their reactions, thoughts and feelings around navigating the course.

It is important that the designer document as much real-time feedback as possible. Most participants are not accustomed to providing a stream of consciousness around what they are feeling and thinking when navigating a process, especially if it’s the first time they’ve seen the UX.

Here is guidance that we use to draw out as much robust response as possible.

To the focus group participant before the review is started:

As we go through this site, please think out loud

There is no observation that is too small to mention

Tell me what you’re trying to do

Tell me how you think you can do it.

If you get confused or don’t think you can understand me, please tell me

If you see something you like, please tell me

As the participant navigates the course, avoid asking “yes” or “no” questions and ask open-ended questions:

How would you decide to navigate X?

What is this [FEATURE] for?

What do you expect [FEATURE] to do? Why?

What goes through your mind as you look at [FEATURE]? Why

What are you looking for? Why

What would you do next? Why

Does the general navigation and flow make sense? Why or why not?

Describe, overall, what’s happening in the modules? (The interviewer is looking to determine if the modules are the correct size, if any parts seem overwhelming, etc.)

Does the quiz hit the mark as more of a checklist?

It’s important to take notes verbatim. There can be nuggets of insight used in particular phrasing that will be valuable when reviewing the notes.

This process is all about removing the friction from the process for the participant. Where are the points that feel overwhelming to someone who is not used to working with content management systems, not used to consistently blogging or not used to getting feedback about their writing?

We want to remove unnecessary obstacles that would keep the student from learning how to develop a WordPress site.